1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for dispensing coins or tokens and more particularly to a hopper type coin dispensing apparatus including a hopper for storing coins or tokens in bulk and a rotary disc for delivering the coins from the hopper one at a time and in desired quantities.
2. Description of the Prior Art
U.S. Pat. No. 3,942,544 and No. 4,437,478 are illustrative of the prior art. There are disclosed a coin dispensing apparatus comprising a hopper for holding a supply of coins, a rotary disc rotatably disposed in the hopper at an angle to the horizontal, the rotary disc having at the central portion a central disc of a diameter depending on a diameter of a coin to be dispensed and having at the peripheral portion a plurality of coin engaging projections spaced in the peripheral direction, a delivery knife having a point being tangential to the upper periphery of the central disc and a delivery chute adapted for receiving the coin from the rotary disc by the delivery knife. The central disc and the pins define coin receiving spaces on the rotary disc. These coin receiving spaces on the rotary disc pickup coins from the lower portion of the hopper and deliver them to the upper delivery zone one at a time to be passed into the delivery chute by the delivery knife when the rotary disc is rotated within the hopper. In such a hopper type coin dispensing apparatus, in order to improve the coin dispensing efficiency, it is necessary that all of the coin receiving spaces on the rotary disc effectively pickup the coins from the lower portion of the hopper by the assistance of an agitator which can agitate the coins within the hopper sufficiently.
Furthermore, in order to improve the coin dispensing efficiency, it is also necessary to prevent the rotary disc from joggling in the normal direction to the plane of rotation caused by the variation of partial load subjected to the lower portion of the rotary disc by the coins within the hopper since such joggling of the rotary disc results in an interference between the delivery knife positioned at the upper delivery zone and/or the delivery chute and the engaging projections on the rotary disc and/or the coins delivered into the upper delivery zone. It is also important to prevent the inlet of the delivery chute from blocking by coins which are pushed upwardly by the powerful agitating action of the agitator and progressively passed into the upper delivery zone along with the coin carried by the engaging projection on the rotary disc.
In view of the foregoing, various means have been arranged in the hopper type coin dispensing apparatus, as the result, the construction of the coin dispensing apparatus is complicated and parts of the apparatus are increased so that lot of labor is required for assembling and manufacturing thereof.